To know today means to be connected. Knowledge moves too fast for learning to be only a product.We used to acquire knowledge by bringing it close to ourselves.We were said to possess it – to have it exist in our heads.We can no longer seek to possess all needed knowledge personally.We must store it in our friends or within technology.

Social Learning – Learning by observing, conversing, or questioning. This can take place in an informal or formal setting and sometimes may even occur without the learner realizing that learning is taking place or without making a conscious decision to learn. It’s organic and usually unorganized. Social Learning is more focused on the needs of the individual. In social learning, a participant might ask “What do *I* need to know and who knows how to answer this quickly?” Knowledge is primarily consumed or pulled from experts.

In a fundamental way, all work is about learning: it is about learning to fit in and to collaborate, about learning to take initiative when appropriate, it is about really understanding customers, about acquiring intimate knowledge of the products and services the company sells and how they can fit into customers’ lives. Acknowledged as such or not, learning has to be an integral part of work. But, somehow, integrated [work+learning] activities have become split into the separate spheres of [work] and [training] which have come to be dominated by quite different interests. This weekend, I was struck by a logic stick. If all learning is social, is all social learning? We know this is not automatically so, learned that in the intro to Logic, Sets and Numbers (an actual college course I took in the 70’s). But when we engage in a social setting, online or offline, are we ever not learning? Let’s add in a third statement: we are constantly learning. Even while asleep, some research indicates, the brain assembles and makes sense of what it experienced that day. There isn’t a time when our brains aren’t rewiring themselves based on input from our environment.

MikeMcDermott (T Rowe Price): “I think the impact of social learning will dramatically increase in the future, in a number of ways, both internally with our associates and externally with our clients.”KarieWillyerd (Sun Microsystems): “we see the death of newspapers … the same thing is going to happen with learning functions and training materials … if we don’t learn how to publish with social media … through social learning.”WaltMcFarland (Booz Allen Hamilton): “The environment is going to demand it [social learning]. The problems are just tougher and they’re too big for any one consultant or any consulting team”RebeccaFerguson (Open University): “Social Learning happens when people: clarify their intention – learning rather than browsing; ground their learning – by defining their question or problem; engage in focused conversations – increasing their understanding of the available resources.

Social Learning seems to imply that formal training is not relevant in today’s world. I would say that this is not the case, and that it still serves a valid purpose, namely onboarding of newcomers, and reducing the risk of dispersion. Formal training can provide a stepping stone to social learning as you still need to go through different phases of understanding, and prioritization of knowledge elements. The issue lies with the mass of information out there, and although you can say that your peers can provide you with guidance, it is still a hard slog.Hence the second point, dispersion. It is far too easy to head off in 50 different directions, losing focus of your objective along the way. Here again you can turn to your peers, but who has the time (and patience) to get you ‘up to speed’ so that you in turn can contribute to the collective learning effort after having been ‘enabled’Cheers,Mark

Hi Marks, thanks for your comment, hope you are well. I completely agree with you when you are saying formal training should keep playing an important role. Both the formal and the informal dimensions should be integrated and nurtured. I also believe that your perspective to consider formal training as a stepping stone for is really interesting. Thanks again for sharing your reflections with me :)Cheers!

hi, i???m increasingly conviced that formal and informal learning are both essentials for developing any learning environment for workplace.Jane Hart on "Social Learning Handbook??? suggests the following good examples: ???formal learning is best suited for:- providing a body ok knowledge for the novice to bring them up to scratch- learners who like structured learning, and who need to be told what (and how) to learn informal learning is more suited for:- people who need to add info to an already existing body of knowledgepeople who like unstructured learning and like to find out things for themselves and make the connections with the knowledge they already have???maybe this could be another interesting starting point for discussing about social learning and his potential for workplace: what is your opinion?bye!Alberto

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Stefano Besana

EY EMEIA Digital Transformation & Future of Work Center of Excellence. Digital & Social Business Strategist with more than 8 years of experience. Social Media Strategist & Press Office Manager for JazzAscona Festival. Invited Lecturer and Professor at IED Milano, PoliMi, Sole24Ore, Catholic University. I focus my research on digital transformation, social CRM, professional training, enterprise 2.0, digital media management, HR 2.0, social learning and social business processes & strategies.